When did you display enough personal courage to superiors to take the "hard right" over the "easy wrong"?

2015-07-09T21:12:27-04:00

http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/2015/07/08/glenda-lock-fired-mcdonald-army-health-center-investigatoin/29871027/
Toxic leadership, authoritarian (even draconian at times) is a huge elephant in the room. I applaud all personnel involved in standing by there guns and holding all to the same standard.

Response by COL Charles Williams made Jul 9 at 2015 11:15 PM

2015-07-09T23:15:29-04:00

MSG Private RallyPoint Member When I gave a LT who was sexual predator (charged more than once) a referred OER (Relief) despite the fact my Brigade Commander said I was overreacting. That resulted in me being investigated by a Commanders Inquiry (no issue), EO, and the DAIG and DODIG, and being flagged for over 3 years...

Response by PO1 John Miller made Jul 10 at 2015 6:03 AM

2015-07-10T06:03:30-04:00

I've worked for people like that myself and I have to agree it was a big morale crusher.

A few of them were just hard asses that nobody liked, but didn't necessarily do anything "illegal." For example, I had one First Class come to my division and tried to take over because he was senior to the First Class who was in charge. Talk about conflicting orders. He eventually got transferred, but didn't get in trouble.

Then there was an Officer who completely undermined our enlisted leadership. He was prior enlisted and I got the feeling that he could never let that part go.

But the icing on the cake was a government civilian who put herself into a leadership position. She started off as our divisional "Technical Director" but decided she wanted direct input on military personnel so she made herself "Assistant Division Officer." She was really good at hobnobbing with the right people so she was supported. Once she got a little bit of power she became toxic. Changing her own policies on a seemingly daily basis without telling anyone or putting anything in writing, completely rewriting people's fitness reports with no regard to their input (despite not observing people on a consistent basis), you name it. If leadership could be done wrong, she did it. She did eventually get hers though, and got transferred to a new position where she had no supervisory responsibilities and was not allowed to work with military personnel. Too bad she didn't get fired outright, but that's they way of the beast with civil service!